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Allie has had a lot of big events recently. She had her preschool graduation party, a dance recital and her 4th birthday.

The preschool graduation was held at a park. They played, painted their hand prints on t-shirts, ate pizza, took pictures and were given preschool certificates. I’m a little sad that it’s over. Allie loved preschool! Hopefully I’ll figure out something for her to do in the fall.

She also took a dance class. It ended a week ago with a darling recital. Allie was a little excited at the beginning and didn’t stay in her spot. She knew the dance well because we practiced at home but I think it was a little overwhelming to be on a stage in front of an audience…she was too distracted. But she was still so darn cute out there along with all the other 3 year olds.

Allie’s birthday was last Friday. She turned 4 years old. She wanted a purple princess Allie cake; so that’s what I made for her. Her party was at a place called Jumpin’ Beans. Twelve kids jumped their hearts out at this inflatable fun place. We played a quick game of stick the kiss on the frog and then sang and ate cake. Allie was so happy that most of her friends could make it to the party. She had a wonderful time! Now she’s on to planning her 5th birthday party.

Jake and I are doing well. Jake’s busy working on a dissertation and I’m trying to run the home. I was called back into the Primary as a CTR 6 teacher. I really enjoy teaching primary! Luke has taken five steps and is getting more brave every day.

We’ve got some more events coming up: Luke’s first birthday is on the 22nd, my mom and Dave are coming to visit next week and we’re packing up and moving to a bigger and better apartment in a few weeks. We’ll send out our new contact information the week of our move.

Allie – May 2009

Family picture after Allie’s Dance Recital

The purple princess Allie cake that she requested

The real purple princess Allie (if you haven’t noticed yet…her favorite color is purple)

Opening her present from Grandma and Grandpa D. She wore her new clothes to the party.

Singing Happy Birthday to Allie at Jumpin Beans

Having fun at the birthday party

Allie kept asking if we were going to see Patrick today. Nope, we didn’t see him. But we had a great GREEN day. We started out the day with green eggs and ham, green yogurt and green milk. Allie went to preschool where she learned all about St. Patrick’s day. A week ago we made a leprechaun trap. Those darn leprechauns are sneaky and elusive. We didn’t catch one but we could tell that a leprechaun did look around because he left some of his gold coins by the trap. For dinner, we had corned beef and cabbage, potatoes and rolls. We ended the night with some lime sherbet. I wanted to share this recipe with ya’ll because it was delicious! Even the cabbage was awesome and I don’t normally care for cabbage.

Corned Beef (baked)

3 lbs corned beef (in package)
10 whole cloves
1/4 cup hot sweet honey mustard
2 Tbsp brown sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Drain the corned beef from the package and discard the spice packet. Lay corned beef, fat side up, on a large piece of wide, heavy duty, aluminum foil (you may have to get creative with the way you wrap the beef if your foil isn’t wide enough). Insert the cloves into the top of the slab of corned beef, evenly spaced. Spread the top with the hot sweet honey mustard. Sprinkle brown sugar over the top.

2. Wrap the corned beef with foil in a way that allows for a little space on top between the corned beef and the foil, and creates a container to catch the juices. Place foil-wrapped corned beef in a shallow roasting pan and bake for 2 hours.

3. Open the foil wrapping, spread a little more honey mustard over the top of the corned beef, and broil it for 2-3 minutes, until the top is bubbly and lightly browned. Place on cutting board and cut at a diagonal, across the grain of the meat, into 1/2-inch thick slices.

Serve immediately. Serves 5.

Cabbage (Sautéed)

Olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 cloves garlic, minced
1 large head of cabbage, sliced into 3/8-inch to 1/2-inch wide slices
Salt

1. Heat 2 Tbsp olive oil (enough to well coat the pan) on medium high to high heat in a large, wide pot (8-quart if available) or large, high-sided sauté pan. Add chopped onions, cook for a couple of minutes, then add garlic.

2. Add a third of the sliced cabbage to the pan. Sprinkle with a little salt and stir to coat with oil and mix with onions. Spread out the cabbage evenly over the bottom of the pan and do not stir until it starts to brown. If the heat is high enough, this should happen quickly. The trick is to have the burner hot enough to easily brown the cabbage, but not so hot that it easily burns. When the bottom of the cabbage is nicely browned, use a metal spatula to lift it up and flip it, scraping the browned bits as you go.

3. Once the cabbage in the pan has browned on a couple of flips, add another third of the cabbage to the pan. Mix well, then spread out the cabbage and repeat. You may need to add a bit more olive oil to the pan to help with the browning, and to keep the cabbage from sticking too much to the pan. Once this batch has cooked down a bit and browned, add the remaining third of the cabbage and repeat.

Serve with the corned beef. Serve with boiled new potatoes. Can be made ahead and reheated.

Serves 5.

Enjoy!

P.S. Go Anoop-dog!!

(To enlarge the photos, click on the picture, then click on it one more time)

Jake’s sister, Ashlee, flew to DC with her friends over spring break. We decided to make the 5 hour trek up North to visit her for the weekend. It was GREAT to see Ashlee. Allie adores her and got the quivering lower lip and teary eyes after we said good bye to her.

I wish I could say the trip was awesome, but unfortunately, it was not one of our better vacations. Maybe it was because it was the weekend of Friday the 13th; we had bad luck all weekend long.
1. Traffic: horrible
2. Hotel: not as cool as the website made it out to be and it was further from DC than we had hoped. And…we were soooo looking forward to going swimming in their indoor pool and sitting in the hot tub. The water was freezing!!
3. Food: crappy-we just kept choosing the wrong places
4. Sleep: What’s that? No one got any.
5. Kids: grumpy (due to reason #4 and #1-being strapped in the car all weekend long)
6. Weather: sucked big time!!!! It rained NON STOP. Okay, I take that back…it let up Saturday morning for a couple hours…enough to get a few pictures in. But it was freezing too. Note to self…do not go to DC in the winter.
7. Camera: was on the wrong settings so most of my photos turned out blurry.
8. Jake’s iphone fell and cracked the face. Jake was not a happy camper.
9. Jake’s huge pepsi spilled ALL over our car.
10. And now Luke is back to waking up 4 times a night. I don’t deal well with little sleep…I turn into a monster.

Whew, that was a lot of negativity from me. Overall, we are glad we went. It was so good to see Ashlee, even though it was short and luck was not on our side.

Maybe now that it’s St. Patrick’s Day and I’m part Irish, our luck will come back. Happy St. Patrick’s day to everyone!

Ten years ago today I was hanging out with my two roommates, Jodie and Teresa, in Carousel Court Apartments in Rexburg, Idaho. We were bored, wondering what to do on a cold Saturday night in a small college town. Out the window we saw some guys walking. We deemed them “hot” and decided to see where they were headed. Well, we followed them to Rockland apartments. We didn’t want to appear as stalkers so we decided that we’d stop following them and go say hello to our home teachers, who happened to live in the Rockland apartment complex. As we approached their apartment, the door swung open and Teem (one HT) and another guy, whom I had not met, were heading out. Their plans changed when we met up; Teem and Teresa went to rent a movie, while Jodie, the new guy and I stayed back.

As you may have guessed by now, the new guy was Jake. Jake and I flirted all night while singing along with the Proclaimers, playing Nuclear War, and swapping massages while watching “So I Married an Axe Murderer” (the movie that Teem and Teresa rented). Teem drove us home and Jake hopped in the back seat next to me and put his arm around my shoulders to keep me warm. At home, my roommates and I excitedly talked about Jake and how we totally hit it off. To be honest, I can’t say that I knew he was the man I was going to marry the moment I saw him like some people can, but I knew we were attracted to each other and I was excited to see him again. Jake later told me that on the way home Teem told Jake that he thought we’d be a great match. Teem was exactly right!!

• Five days later we went on our first date, swing dancing.
• Three weeks later we kissed (on April Fools day, ha ha).
• A year and one day later we were engaged. (He was hoping to propose on March 12th but the ring wasn’t ready until the next day).
• One year and three months later we were sealed and married in the Jordan River Temple. The best day of my life!

Ten years later I am so grateful that things worked out the way they did. I am happily married to my best friend. He’s an amazing husband and father. I feel so blessed to have him for eternity!

We went to a children’s hair salon today and got Allie’s hair cut for the second time in her life. It was definitely time for a cut. I think she looks so cute with shoulder-length hair.

BEFORE

Please excuse the no pants…she despises wearing pants and half the time I let her go pantless because I don’t feel like arguing (now you know who really wears, or doesn’t wear, the pants in the family:).

AFTER

I can’t believe we have let a whole month go by with out blogging. It’s not for a lack of things to blog about, I’ve just become lackadaisical about doing it. It’s always on the list of things to do but it’s the last item on the list so it rarely get’s crossed off. Anyway, I have a lot I could report but I’m just going to give an update on Luke for now. Jake will be blogging soon.

Luke turned 9 months last week. He started crawling about 3 weeks ago and he is unstoppable now. He’s exploring all over the place and I’ve just realized that my home is not very proofed for baby. With this new milestone has come lots of bruises. He is climbing on everything and will lose his balance and hit his head. Poor guy has bruises all over his noggin. But he’s tough and it hasn’t stopped him from trying again.

We are still waiting on some teeth. By this age, Allie had at least 4 teeth so it’s a little surprising that he doesn’t have any yet. It looks like the bottom two will come up any day. However, he still enjoys gumming down some cheerios, beans or noodles.

Luke just learned how to wave and clap his hands. I love this age…they’re so sweet and innocent. He’s growing up so quickly on us; it’s hard to believe he will be a year old in a few months.

Here are his stats from his nine month check up:
Weight: 19lbs 12 oz (50%)
Height: 28 1/4 in (50%)

Everyone thinks he is huge but according to the numbers, he’s just an average sized baby. I think he is slimming out now that he is crawling (he weighs the same as he did at 8 months and yet eating more).

We won’t let a full month go by again so keep checking back. I know how much I love reading others blogs so I’ll try to keep up to date with ours.

It rarely snows here in NC so when it does, it’s a big deal. Schools closed, businesses closed, church activities were canceled. The state stopped for 4 inches of snow.

I begged Jake to stay home and play in the snow with us for a little bit. Unfortunately, he was too busy… that is, until UNC canceled all classes due to the snow. So Jake came home a little earlier than normal and he and Allie made a snowman. Luke and I only stayed outside long enough to take some pictures then headed inside to our warm, cozy apartment and made hot chocolate for them. It was a fun snow day!

It would take WAY too much time to tell you about all that we’ve done in the past month. So here are some bullet points and some pictures to go along with them:

I taught preschool and threw a Preschool Christmas party

Allie and I went with our girlfriends to Disney on Ice. Allie was in heaven!

Went to the Raleigh temple to see a Live Nativity Scene and show Allie the temple. They also had a room for kids to dress up and Allie had fun dressing up as Mary. She couldn’t stop kissing the baby doll.

Went to the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro

We had a Christmas Eve dinner with some friends

Christmas morning was so perfect. Allie got EVERYTHING she wanted (way too much princess stuff). It was such a peaceful and relaxing day.

We went to Corolla, NC to a beach house with some friends over New Years. It was freezing so we mainly stayed indoors. We played lots of games and soaked in the hot tub.

We had a wonderful month but we missed family greatly! One of my goals this year is to update this blog more often…I’ve been slacking. Happy New Year to everyone!

To one, to all, Merry Christmas. We hope this letter finds you well, with hot chocolate in your belly and fuzzy slippers on your feet. As for us, we can’t wait for Christmas to enjoy each other’s company and relax at home. We will sorely miss being away from family, this being the first year in our married life to do so. But Santa will visit us here in Chapel Hill just as he would out west, and we’ll celebrate as a small family the best season of the year.

This year has treated us well. Of most significance, we three became four. Our son, Luke, is now six months old and is as lively as ever. He rolls, sits up and falls over, tries to steal food while we’re eating and laughs as his older sister mauls him. More than once, we have said to ourselves, “so this is what a boy is like” as Luke squirms, wiggles and grunts for attention. We love him. Most of all, Allie loves him—so much so that she constantly kisses, hugs and suffocates him. She has nicknamed him “Jeh-Jeh,” which came from thin air. The rest of us call him Buster and Pokey, which also came from thin air. It seems that he is just so lovable that he needs three nicknames to accommodate our affection for him.

Allie, age 3, took some serious steps toward growing up this year. She got rid of the pacifier, moved to a big girl bed, started pre-school and dance lessons, and very stubbornly mastered potty training. She has developed a healthy imagination and often tells stories that include princesses, horses, frogs, unicorns and Jesus—usually with some combination of those characters. When Luke was born, we were worried that she would reject the idea of another child absorbing much of mommy’s attention—but Allie responded amazingly well by loving and nurturing her baby brother. She brags often that she is a big sister. Seriously, we hate that she is growing up, but we sure enjoy these milestones in her life and she seems to generally take them in stride.

Kerrie spends most of her day chasing the two kids mentioned above. She, like most mothers, lives much of her life through the eyes and hands of her children. Being a mother is Kerrie’s greatest joy and struggle. Such is life. At nights, when the kids have finally left her some time for herself, she enjoys a good movie, surfing family blogs and watching the Office. And she continues to moonlight as an amateur photographer. Kerrie has made some great friends here in North Carolina and enjoys play-dates with them while the kids run wild.

Jake is plodding along through school…still. He completed his coursework towards his doctorate and is now working on a dissertation. We’re more than halfway done here at UNC and hope to get a job out West when graduation finally approaches. Jake works most of the day, but spends plenty of time playing. He is certainly the most spoiled member of the family. What he wants, he gets and the rest of us oblige because his tantrums are the biggest of all. Jake has had some fun opportunities to travel this year for accounting conferences—he went to Memphis in March, Provo in October and will be visiting New Orleans and Orlando in the next couple months. Someday, he’ll have a real job.

Life has been mostly good for us. Of course, we’ve had our angry, pouty, selfish, sleepy, gassy, rolley-poley, schleppy moments, but we remember the good things. And that’s what counts. We want you to know that you are one of those good things that we remember. We miss you and love you.

Merry Christmas,
Jake, Kerrie, Allie and Luke